Construction starts on N.D. corn-ethanol facility

Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, the first U.S. corn-ethanol plant to begin construction in the last five years, celebrated its groundbreaking Friday in Spiritwood, N.D. The plant is expected to use 23 million bushels of corn annually to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol, 6,900 tons of fuel-grade corn oil and 198,000 tons of distillers grains. "This is the first corn-based ethanol plant since 2007 to meet the carbon reduction goals. That's what makes Dakota Spirit unique," said Greg Ridderbusch, president of Midwest AgEnergy Group.